newbie questions

[whosinpower]

Hi all!

I am currently cycling a 90 gallon tank with uncured liverock. (week 4) Cycle is going well, and I am seeing nitrite and nitrate levels drop daily. I have a plethora of different algae growing.

Looked here to indentify some of them. One in particular, I had no idea what it was - did not think algae could be blue, and I can tell it is growing. Found it on the reefslide show! Blue ball Algae!!! I like it and am happy to have this hitchhiker. Wish I had more of it and less hair algae - but that is another story.

Anyhow....I am getting close to putting in a clean up crew for the reef and was wondering if anyone has/had any experience they could share with me about this type of algae. I want to keep this and not have it eaten!

Do I sit down and have a deep discussion with the snails/crabs and tell them DO NOT TOUCH THE BLUE STUFF.....or will they leave it alone anyways. There is allot of hair algae, some diatoms, bubble algae, and some red algae just beginning to sprout. Are there some particular snails/hermits who like particular algae to munch on?

Thanks for any advice.

 

[lancer99]

Well I will take a shot.....hermits and snails will probably ignore macros and go for the hair algae, so your blue ball is probably safe. When it gets big, frag it and send me some

I'm surprised that your nitrates are dropping already. Usually when curing new rock they increase, then once the nitrites are gone, a big water change is needed (IME).

Also FWIW once your ammonia is zero, you can start to add things to the tank. Saltwater critters aren't really sensitive to nitrite....on the other hand, patience is a virtue.....

As for which snails/hermits prefer which types of algae, I'll leave that one to the experts.

-R

 

[sjfishguy]

Also FWIW once your ammonia is zero, you can start to add things to the tank. Saltwater critters aren't really sensitive to nitrite

That is just wrong, unless you meant to say nitrAte. Nitrite is indeed less toxic than ammo, but is still quite toxic none the less. You should definitely wait until nitrites are ZERO before you add anything more to your cycling tank. If ammo is zero, nitrite should be sure to follow suit shortly there after.

Back to the question at hand, I have some Ochtodes algae (blue ball) and I have one of almost every type of hermit and snail there is, and none of mine touch it, so you should be fine.

 

[lancer99]

Urban reef-keeping myth, unless you expect nitrite to get to 10000 ppm. Google it.

-R

 

[sjfishguy]

Google will tell me aliens exist too and spring water can cure cancer. Believe what you want bro, I know my facts.....

 

[lancer99]

LOL! Point taken

I can't find it now, but there was a fairly recent article by Randy Holmes-Farley, whom I think is pretty clued-in, and he basically said that nitrites, while highly toxic in freshwater, are not very toxic in saltwater...that it was just an assumption carried over from freshwater.

Even if that's so, of course it's better to err on the side of caution.

BTW, I am now eating five pounds of beets a day. A spam-mail told me that would increase my male sexual potential.

-R

 

[sjfishguy]

Haha, nice. I would like to see that article by Randy (he is very reputable) if you can find it. Nitrates at low levels are toxic to sensitive species (corals, etc), you can see the effects. That is why I find it hard to believe that nitrites would not be toxic at higher levels. But all in all that was my point exactly, better to err on the side of caution, especially for a new guy.

 

[lancer99]

Well, this is the article: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-06/rhf/index.php

He does conclude that in the few studies of nitrite toxicity in invertebrates, lethal doses of nitrite are "tens to thousands of ppm nitrite."

I misread that as "tens OF thousands of ppm nitrate."

My only excuse it that the elevated nitrite levels in the new tank I'm setting up must have infected my brain!

-R

 

[sjfishguy]

That makes more sense. Thanks for the link.